ICE lets off US citizen picked up from Minnesota home in his underwear, without explanation or apology | World News

The ongoing United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation in Minnesota, which has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons, came under further criticism after a US citizen was handcuffed and dragged out of his home into the snow while wearing shorts and sandals.Chongly Thao, a 56-year-old naturalised US citizen, was taking a nap in his home in St. Paul on Sunday afternoon when ICE agents began banging at the door.

Thao, who was born in Laos and came to the US at the age of 4, said masked ICE agents then forced their way in and pointed guns at the family, including this daughter-in-law and grandson, yelling at them.

Chongly “Scott” Thao, a US citizen, sits for a photo at his home Monday, Jan. 19, 2026, in St. Paul, Minn., the day after federal agents broke open his door and detained him without a warrant. (AP Photo/Jack Brook)

“I was shaking,” he said. “They didn’t show any warrant; they just broke down the door,” Thao, who goes the name Scott, told The Associated Press.

Thao, who has been a US citizen for decades, said that as he was being detained, he asked his daughter-in-law to find his identification, but the agents told him they didn’t want to see it.Story continues below this ad

Instead, as his 4-year-old grandson watched and cried, Thao was led out in handcuffs, wearing only sandals and underwear with just a blanket wrapped around his shoulders.

Videos go viral

Videos captured the scene, which included people blowing whles and horns and neighbours screaming at the more than a dozen gun-toting agents to leave Thao’s family alone.

The Trump adminration is disgusting! Yesterday, ICE raided a home on St. Paul’s East Side. Their target was ChongLy Scott Thao, an elderly Hmong American man.He’s a U.S. citizen with no criminal record.Armed ICE agents broke down the door without presenting a valid… pic.twitter.com/cJhysjhq6R— Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) January 19, 2026

Let off without explanation

Thao said agents drove him “to the middle of nowhere” and made him get out of the car in the frigid weather so they could photograph him.

He said he feared they would beat him. He was asked for his ID, which agents earlier prevented him from retrieving.

Agents eventually realized that he was a US citizen with no criminal record, Thao said, and an hour or two later, they brought him back to his house.Story continues below this ad

ICE agents walk through a gas station, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

There, they made him show his ID and then left without apologizing for detaining him or breaking his door, Thao said.

DHS defends ICE operation

Following the incident, the Department of Homeland Security described the ICE operation at Thao’s home as a “targeted operation” seeking two convicted sex offenders.

“The US citizen lives with these two convicted sex offenders at the site of the operation,” DHS said.

“The individual refused to be fingerprinted or facially ID’d. He matched the description of the targets.Story continues below this ad

However, Thao’s family rejected the DHS account and said they “strongly object to DHS’s attempt to publicly justify this conduct with false and misleading claims.”

Thao told the AP that only he, his son and daughter-in-law and his grandson live at the rental home. Neither they nor the property’s owner are led in the Minnesota sex offender regry.

Thao’s son, Chris Thao, said ICE agents stopped him while he was driving to work before they went to detain his father. He said he was driving a car he borrowed from his cousin’s boyfriend. Court records show that the boyfriend shares the first name of another Asian man who has been convicted of a sex offense. Chris Thao said the two people are not the same.